Monday, September 11, 2017

Bricked

Bricked? Yes, that's what most folks say when an electronic device dies. "Well, it makes a nice doorstop, it's bricked."

Well, that's what happened to our trusty Old School GoPro HERO2 on this trip. It quit and it bricked. We hoped we could perform some CPR on it when we returned to Idaho Falls. Nope. Even a software reinstall and firm ware update couldn't save the little puppy. It recorded it's last few frames yesterday and now we're probably gonna drill a hole through it and make it a another brick on the wall hanging in our Man Cave.

This GoPro had a truly interesting story that's worth retelling here. We bought it in early June 2012 just before Joshua Wheeler came to visit for two weeks after his freshman year at NAU. We had all sorts of fun Concept Ideas about how to use the GoPro to record Joshua's first trip to Idaho.

We were SO Proud to strap on the GoPro for a memorable whitewater raft trip on Father's Day 2012. The camera performed admirably in the first big rapid--Shotgun.

However, after running into a wall of whitewater at Sunbeam Dam in the second rapid the raft guide reached down into the six inch deep water still inside the self-bailing raft and pulled up a GoPro camera. She calmly asked, "Anybody lose a GoPro?" Yep, it was mine.

Oh, the shame and embarrassment! I had forgotten to put the GoPro in its waterproof housing. So, it was bricked almost right out of the brand new box. Well, we let it sit out in the sun and put it a ventilated bag of rice and forgot about the camera. By and by a few weeks later, we pulled the GoPro out of the rice and, voila, it worked!

So, we used it for this and that now and then and a month or so before the one year warranty expired, the audio quit. So, we contacted GoPro and they said they would fix it but we HAD to have the purchase receipt. Of course, we had long lost the receipt. On impulse, we went out toe the now-defunct Sports Authority outlet where we bought the unit. They said contact Corporate in New York City and maybe they could resurrect a receipt. Believe it or not, Corporate came through! We bundling up the GoPro and shipped it off to GoPro Land and it arrived a mere two days before the warranty expired.

Sure enough, GoPro honored their warranty and sent us a supposedly brand new GoPro. Trouble was the so-called brand new GoPro had a great big ol' rock chip right in the middle of the lens! So, we contacted them and they apologized and we sent out chipped GoPro back and got a honest-to-gosh brand new GoPro back.

Well, this trusty little cam has served us SO WELL since then until this weekend. This cam bricked when it reached the GoPro age of four years and three months which is the equivalent of 87 human years.

We're not sure if we're going to replace the GoPro with either another GoPro or a knock-off action cam. We're thinking our GoPro Days are Gone With The Wind and may be bricked as well.